The Runic Alchemist

Damian had a feeling the nightmare would do its best to erase his existence no matter if he spoke in front of Anthony or any other fake memory of a person in this nightmare.

One sentence. He had to say something in one sentence to Sam that would break this routine.

But what? And even more importantly — when?

By the fourth cycle, Damian confirmed that it was not just the beginning two seconds but the two seconds from when he opened his mouth and mentioned Sam’s name. There was not a single change in the whole nightmare other than Sam’s varied replies to his questions. Mostly, Sam always asked who he was.

The face and body of Ben Carter were working against him.

If he was in his real body, maybe Sam’s memories would be strained a little to remember his familiar face. But who knew — maybe it was because of this very face and identity that this weird world of illusions the Demon Lord’s skill had created could not recognize him and was failing to even control him.

Also, after Sam witnessed his parents being tortured, all efforts of Damian to get his attention were completely useless. That was understandable — he was in too much pain to care about anything else.

Damian took a cycle to just sit under a tree and think about what possible words could give him something different as an outcome.. Damian thought of sentence after sentence, trying it out in each next cycle. Telling Sam about the tragedy earlier did not work, revealing the truth about his powers did not work, telling him not to go home did not work, and neither did telling him he was stuck in a memory loop. Cycle after cycle, Damian changed the sentence to get something different as a reaction and failed in each cycle to make any difference at all.

He could not touch Sam — neither could he touch the stones and sticks on the ground. There was nothing in his control other than just one sentence before the nightmare realized he was a problem and shut him off completely.

At last, getting tired of the useless.. in who knew which cycle — as Sam started lecturing his uncle right outside the tavern, Damian said something without any thought behind it at all:

“Come on, Sam, I need your help. I am all alone here.”

It did not get him any response. But there was a change in Sam’s eyes that did not go unnoticed by Damian. Sam said nothing and continued to get his uncle to go back to his house. However, this time, after every few meters of walking and arguing with his uncle, Sam kept looking towards Damian.

Was he still visible? Even after he revealed himself to the nightmare?

Reaching halfway through, Damian used his hands to get Sam’s attention — but as usual, it failed. Damian tried his best to convey that he shouldn’t go back to his house whenever Sam looked at him — he had no idea if Sam could even see him or whether or not it was working at all. But right after Anthony noticed something was wrong and got alert, looking all serious — Sam looked at Damian with worried expressions as if he had finally understood what Damian was trying to convey.

Still, Sam only gave him one look and ran behind his uncle inside the house — forgetting all about him from there after. Damian sighed and sat in the corner of the room, waiting for the cycle to end.

In the next cycle, Damian said the same sentence again, and once again it was clear that he had gotten Sam’s attention, even if it was fleeting. Damian kept whispering that he shouldn’t go inside his house, he shouldn’t do this — Damian kept telling him to think and remember. It was hard to say how much went through in real, but Damian kept trying for this, cycle after cycle.

And finally, the time came when, realizing something had gone wrong — Anthony ran towards the house, and Sam stopped. He looked towards Damian, and he tried his best to shake his head.

Sam.. did not go inside his house.

Instead, he asked,

“Who are you? Why do you not want me to see that?”

Damian had used up his one sentence already, and he could not reply back. He just pointed at a vein on his wrist (After drawing a little blood), then pointed at himself and Sam back and forth.

“Family..” Sam whispered, his eyes wide.

Strangely, this time instead of finishing the cycle — it ended right there and then. Damian was surprised to find himself once again back at the tavern with Sam and Anthony so soon. However, this time the familiar dialogue never started. Anthony opened his droopy eyes to look up at Sam, but he was not paying him any attention at all — instead, Sam was staring at Damian, not a simple peek or fleeting look but a proper wait for him to say something, as he always did at the start of each cycle.

Damian smiled. He had succeeded.

“Other than the two of us — none of this is real, Sam,” he said at last.

The nightmare took his voice once again — but it was too late now. Sam breathed in, looking at Anthony and then at all the surrounding black-and-white village and its villagers — all of which had suddenly stopped moving as if someone had paused the whole scene with a single press of a button.

Sam nodded in understanding, and in the next second, the black-and-white world started disintegrating into tiny black-and-white particles. It went on till nothing was left beside Sam and Damian — the familiar darkness enveloped them, pulling their consciousness away.

When Damian came back to life, he coughed violently, shivering — it was too fucking cold! He could still hear the shouts of all the villagers coming closer and closer. His clothes were drenched, and so was the axe in his hand. The blue liquid he had dived inside with the axe in hand rose above him as if gravity was a joke to it. The whole giant dark blue sphere broke apart, the violent energy being condensed into a smaller, simple form of a teenage human man.

The blue energy cleared, finally leaving behind Sam’s naked figure, breathing heavily.

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